New Delhi: In over 190 Enforcement Directorate (ED) cases against political leaders in the last 10 years, only two have resulted in conviction, the Union government told the parliament.
Minister of state in the Union finance ministry, Pankaj Chaudhary was responding to questions raised by Communist Party of India (Marxist) Rajya Sabha MP AA Rahim. Rahim had asked how many ED cases had been registered against MPs, MLAs and local administration members in the last ten years, along with their party, state-wise and year-wise.
ED cases and convictions. Photo: X/@LiveLaw
Chaudhary said that such data was not maintained. Instead, a table with year-wise details of cases against existing and Ex MPs, MLAs, MLCs and political leaders or anyone affiliated with any political party during the last 10 years was given, LiveLaw reported.
On Rahim asking “whether there has been an increase in ED cases filed against opposition leaders in recent years, and if so, the justification for this trend”, the minister said that no such information has been maintained.
However, the data shows a spurt in the number of cases between 2019-1024 with the most number of cases being filed in 2022-23.
In December 2024, the Union government had told the parliament that out of 911 cases filed by the ED between 2019 and 2024, trials were completed in 654 with a conviction in 42 cases, which puts the conviction rate at 6.42%.
Responding to Rahim’s query whether the government had undertaken any reforms to improve the transparency and efficiency of ED investigations, the minister replied : “The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) is a premier law enforcement agency of the Government of India which has been entrusted with the administration and enforcement of Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA), Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) and Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA). ED takes up the cases for investigation based on credible evidence/ material and does not distinguish cases based on political affiliations, religion or otherwise. Further, the actions of ED are always open to judicial review.
The agency is accountable to different judicial forums viz. Adjudicating Authority, Appellate Tribunal, Special Courts, Hon’ble High Court and Hon’ble Supreme Court for the actions taken in the course of implementation of the PMLA, 2002; FEMA, 1999 and FEOA, 2018.”
